Oral Issues Struggling with answers
 

Hello I am new here to this forum. I am a 24 year old college student with no known health issues besides Aspergers, and oral herpes. My problem started in October about three weeks after I got my upper two wisdom teeth removed. My tongue is coated white, with a yellow palate, difficulty shallowing at times , I have dry mouth, canker sores off and on and a nasty chemical taste in my mouth. I have been to several doctors including an infectous disease doctor, several GPs, an oral pathologist and ENT. Thrush has been ruled out through a KOH stain, and the best they can give me is geographic tongue and general stomatitis. The pathologist suspests an autoimmune disorder but I did not respond to prenisone and I am on no other meds. I am going to my dentist and back to the pathologist next week. Any advice? Also I am negative for Stds, diabetes, livers fine etc. I attached an image below. Thanks!

HI Dustinwx,

I am in the dental field and can offer you some information here.

Thanks for posting the picture. Just FYI... I have seen many thousands of tongues in my career.... .... your tongue indicates a few problems and here is what immediately pops into my mind:

**What medications are you on for the Aspergers?
** How long have you been taking them?
**Are you aware of the side effects of the meds?
**Your diet is deficient in nutrients and you probably have some vitamin deficiencies. Thus the deep ridges along the borders of your tongue and the deep groove down the center.
**The stomatitis you were diagnosed with is a definite symptom of a digestive problem and it correlates with the ridges and deep groves indicating that the problem probably goes further down than your stomach.
**The yellow colored tongue indicates you are lacking healthy, good bacteria in your digestive tract... from the oral cavity all the way down into your colon.

I would suggest you seek a consultation with a nutritionist to help you with your diet and advise you on appropriate vitamin/mineral supplementation which would most definitely help you a whole lot!

Regarding the correlation between having your upper wisdom teeth removed and the onset of your symptoms.... perhaps it is not correlated and/or you had these symptoms prior but were not as aware of them as you are now.

Regarding an auto immune disorder.... not all people will respond to prednisone. However, that lack of response does not rule out an auto immune condition. Also, someone can be ill for awhile and not realize it until the symptoms start to interfere with their daily lives. Some long term health conditions and/or long term medications can trip up the immune system resulting in auto immune problem.

Anytime the digestive system is imbalanced, your tongue will show clear cut signs of deficiency.

Hope this information helps.
Bryanna

Dustinwx
 

Hello and welcome to Neruo talk. None of us are doctors here. However I understand why you are concerned. You really did pick the right kind of doctors to go see. Bryanna is the best with dental issues.
Because you are having swallowing issues, I think I would have to seek one more specialist, an upper GI doctor. Even though you saw an ENT, the upper GI can do an endoscopy and check to see if this swallowing issue is some how related to your condition. They take a biopsy during the endoscopy. Good to check that out just to make sure everything is working OK.
Did the disease specialist, do any kind of tests specific to mouth conditions? Did you have to take a "swallow" test? You drink some awful stuff, and they take pictures of the action in your throat and esophagus. I hope you can find some resolution in this. It isn't fun not to know what is wrong. Let me know why you decided to do. Not sure this is just a dental issue, Bryanna will know more about this than I do. Take care, ginnie:hug:

Hey bryanna thanks for the advice! I currently take adderall for ADHD symptoms. I have taken this sense June but my issues started in July. I have read that various digestive type disorders will cause the yellow coating. I take a multi-vitamin and I have been tested for B vitamin deficiency inwhich the results were normal. Also as I said I am negative for thrush. I do need to eat healthier and probably could benefit from a B vit complex. I have noticed that this issue is the worst when I feel dry mouth symptoms (can't even spit at times) which improves when I eat or when I am not at work (dusty book warehouse) so I'm not sure if there's an allergic component to it. This has been very confusing and it seems hard to diagnose.

Meant to say the issues started in October not july

Yes, I agree about improving nutrient status.

I have to wonder about the yellow staining of your teeth as well.
Do you drink Mountain Dew or other liquids with dyes in them?
Or chew some gum with dyes in it...or suck on candies with dyes in them? The dye is more likely to stick to your mouth for longer periods if you have dry mouth issues.

Yes all the time.

Also for one other picture you can see how it switches around and gets worse esp in the morning.

Here is a picture of "hairy tongue"...

http://stanfordmedicine25.stanford.e...25/tongue.html

More on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairy_leukoplakia

May respond to antiviral medications. (you did mention oral herpes, earlier).

I would stop eating or sucking on any candy for a while and see if that improves it. Including the Mountain Dew...which is an awful thing to consume anyway...IMO.

Thanks though hairy leukoplakia is very rarely seen outside of immunosuppressed folks. (HIV, leukemia) So frustrating.